Summary
Little information is available on the incidence of splanchnic vein thrombosis and
on mortality rates during the acute phase of the disease. We performed a large epidemiologic
study on hospital admissions for portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and the Budd-Chiari
syndrome (BCS) between 2002 and 2012 in Northwestern Italy. Primary and secondary
discharge diagnoses of PVT and BCS were identified using the 9th edition International
Classification of Diseases codes 453.0, 572.1 and 452. Hospitalisations for recurrent
events were not included. Information was collected on age and gender, vital status
at discharge, duration of hospitalisation, and up to five secondary discharge diagnoses.
Comorbidity was evaluated using the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). A total of 3535
patients with PVT and 287 with BCS were hospitalized. The overall gender-specific
incidence rates for PVT were 3.78 per 100,000 inhabitants in males and 1.73 per 100,000
inhabitants in females; for BCS 2.0 and 2.2 per million inhabitants, respectively.
In-hospital case fatality was 7.3 % in patients with PVT and 4.9 % in patients with
BCS. Age, non-abdominal solid cancer, and CCI were independently associated with in-hospital
mortality in both PVT and BCS after stepwise regression analysis, male gender and
haematologic cancer were associated with mortality in BCS patients only. In this large
study we confirmed the low incidence of BCS and we found an incidence of PVT higher
than previously reported. This incidence was stable during the period of observation.
In-hospital mortality is not negligible, in particular in PVT patients.
Keywords
Portal vein thrombosis - Budd-Chiari syndrome - epidemiology - mortality
